Friday, November 30, 2007 Speak out: Elections a failure By Kid Villacarillo Barangay T. Padilla, Cebu City
A FILIPINO must love his country and people.
What good are senators and congressmen, weren’t they designated protectors of the constitutional rights of everyone, as well as the sovereign authority or our country?
Since they are not nation builders, it is therefore proper that their countrywide development funds (CDF) should go directly to the mayors.
This way, lawmakers can wholly focus on their main tasks.
If President Arroyo is reluctant to decide on the matter, then she should let the people decide by holding a plebiscite.
And if we want to reform the ways and means of our government, we should clean our elections.
In the recently concluded barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections, I felt like vomiting when I saw in broad daylight vote buying a few meters away from the voting precincts.
Big politicians and political parties were wrong in giving political and financial aid to their selected barangay leaders.
They merely planted in the heads of barangay leaders the benefits one gets for being corrupt and being violators of election laws and guidelines.
As a result, their daily practice of public service will also be a daily exercise of graft and corruption.
Partisan politics has already done so much damage to our country.
The CDF have all been spent, but where are the projects they are funding?
In our barangay alone, we do not own a single artesian well or a single garbage receptacle for the use of pedestrians.
Because of these, I urge President Arroyo to declare the barangay and SK elections a failure.
In this way, the real sentiments of voters can be clearly manifested, and they can freely choose the really competent and dignified leaders for their barangays.
